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Bollocks?: Bile Farms

In China and Vietnam over 13,000 Asian Black Bears are kept captive to harvest bile. They are locked in extraction cages more commonly called “Crush Cages” due to the fact they’re barely larger than the bears themselves. The reason they are kept in such a small cage is because it’s easier to extract their bile.

But that’s nothing compared to how the bile is extracted from the bear. The most common method was to insert a hollow, steel rod into the bears abdomen in order to “milk it”. However even the cunts doing this realised how cruel it is and came up with a more “humane” solution…

The “Free Drip” consists of making a permanent hole in the bears abdomen and gall bladder so the bile can drip freely. Of course the wound is highly vulnerable to disease and infection and is held open by a perspex catheter. Imagine having a hole in your chest that never heals. I’m not sure which method is more fucked up. The original method was banned but is still reported to be in use.

The bears experience extreme physical and psychological pain. Bears suffer from loss of hair, stunted growth, malnutrition, muscle mass loss and often have their teeth and claws extracted. Bears have been reported to moan and chew their paws, as well as bang their heads against their cage bars. There is one report you can read of a mother bear who was so distressed by the sound of her cub crying out she managed to brake free of her cage. She killed her cub then purposely ran against a wall to kill herself. You can read the full story here.

As if that’s not bad enough this torment can last up to 10 to 12 years. When the bear stops producing bile they are killed. The Chinese government see farming as a reasonable answer to the loss of wild bears from poaching, and at the same time are indifferent to the cruelty. The bears used in farming are known as Moon Bears due to a white crescent on their abdomens. Their numbers are dwindling and there are thought to be less than 25,000 bears Asia-wide.

You’re probably wondering what is so important about this bile to put an intelligent creature through so much pain. MAYBE if it could cure cancer these atrocities could be justified but no. The bile is used in traditional Chinese medicines. The bile has never been demonstrated to have any healing effect in humans and to make it even worse there are several herbal substitutes, which provide a cheap, effective and readily available alternative. So these bears are tortured for no fucking reason whatsoever.

I understand you’re probably used to a more humorous blog and I understand some of the pictures may have put you off your lunch but to be honest I don’t care. This sort of shit shouldn’t be happening in the 21st century.